Trivia: The son of a jazz concert producer, Billy Crystal grew up in the company of such music legends as Billie Holiday, Pee Wee Russell, and Eddy Condon. His mind made up by age five, Crystal knew he wanted to become a performer -- not in music but in baseball or comedy. As he later explained to TV Guide, he chose comedy "because God made me short" -- though from all reports he is one of the best ball players in show business.Learning how to make people laugh by studying the works of past masters Laurel and Hardy, Ernie Kovacs, and Jonathan Winters, Crystal began making the club rounds at 16. He was sidetracked briefly by New York University's film school, where he studied to be a director under Martin Scorsese, but upon graduation it was back to comedy when Crystal formed his own troupe, 3's Company. On his own, he developed into an "observational" comic, humor based on his own experiences and the collective experiences of his audience. He came to media attention via his impression of Howard Cosell interviewing Muhammad Ali. After doing time as an opening act for such musicians as Barry Manilow, Crystal struck out for Hollywood, in hopes of finding regular work on a TV series. In 1977, he was hired to play the gay character Jodie Dallas on Soap. Though many people expected the performer to be typecast in this sort of part, he transcended the "sissy" stereotype, making the character so three-dimensional that audiences and potential employers were fully aware that there was more to Crystal's talent than what they saw in Jodie.Thanks to Soap, Crystal became and remained a headliner and, in 1978, had his first crack at movie stardom as a pregnant man in Rabbit Test. The movie was unsuccessful, but Crystal's star had not been eclipsed by the experience; he was even entrusted with a dramatic role in the 1980 TV movie Enola Gay. His career accelerating with comedy records, choice club dates, regular appearances on Saturday Night Live, and TV guest shots, Crystal had a more successful stab at the movies in such films as This is Spinal Tap (1984), The Princess Bride (1987), Throw Momma From the Train (1987), and When Harry Met Sally (1989). Riding high after a memorable emceeing stint at the Oscar ceremony, Crystal executive produced and starred in his most successful film project to date, an uproarious middle-age-angst comedy called City Slickers (1991). In 1992, he mounted his most ambitious film endeavor, Mr. Saturday Night, the bittersweet chronicle of a self-destructive comedian. The film had great potential (as indicated by the outtakes contained in its video cassette version), but the end result died at the box office. That same year, Crystal again hosted the Oscar awards, and in 1994 he repeated his earlier success with the popular sequel City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly's Gold.Crystal added to his directing credits the following year with the romantic comedy Forget Paris. Unfortunately, the film -- which he also produced, wrote, and starred in -- was something of a flop. He subsequently focused his energies on acting, turning up in Hamlet (1996) and Deconstructing Harry (1997). In 1998 he had another producing stint with My Giant, a comedy he also starred in; like his previous producing effort, that film also proved fairly unsuccessful. However, Crystal bounced back in 1999, executive producing and starring in Analyze This. A comedy about a mob boss, Robert De Niro, seeking therapy from a psychiatrist (Crystal), it won a number of positive reviews, convincing many that the performer was back in his element.Back in the director's chair in 2001, Crystal helmed the made-for-HBO 61*. Detailing the 1961 home-run race between Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, 61* struck a chord with baseball sentimentalists and critics alike. Scripting and starring in America's Sweethearts the same year, Crystal also began to cultivate a voice acting career that would prove extremely successful, providing the voices for characters in Monsters, Inc., Howl's Moving Castle and Cars. As the 2010's continued to unfold, Crystal would find himself increasingly able to take the reigns on both sides of the camera, flexing his muscles as a producer and writer as well as actor, such as with the 2012 comedy Parental Guidance.

Trivia: Gloriously flamboyant American entertainer Bette Midler was born in Honolulu, HI, to the only Jewish family in the neighborhood. After dropping out of a drama class at the University of Hawaii, she took a tiny role in the 1966 film Hawaii, playing a seasick boat passenger (though it's hard to see her when viewing the film). Training for a dancing career in New York, Midler made the casting rounds for several months before finally winning a chorus role, and then the featured part of Tzeitel, in the long-running Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof.It helps to do something well that no one else does, and Midler found her forte by singing at the Continental Baths, a gay hangout in New York. Most bath house performers were painfully bad, but Midler established herself by combining genuine talent with the tackiness expected of her. As the "Divine Miss M," Midler did an act consisting of campy (and dirty) specialty numbers; dead-on imitations of such earlier performers as the Andrews Sisters and Libby Holman; and the most outrageously revealing costumes this side of Bob Mackie. Soon she outgrew the bath houses and went on to nightclub and recording-artist fame, earning a Grammy Award in 1973. After several years of sell-out tours, Midler re-entered films as the star of The Rose, a 1979 film à clef loosely based upon the life and times of Janis Joplin. The film was a success, but it failed to establish Midler as a dramatic actress; audiences, particularly gay fans, still preferred the Divine Miss M. Jinxed (1982), Midler's next film, lived up to its name with well-publicized production squabbles between Midler, the director, producers, and a few of her co-stars. Following the film's failure, Midler wasn't seen onscreen until she signed a contract with Disney in 1986. Establishing a new film identity as a character comedienne, Midler sparkled in Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), and was even better as a loudmouthed kidnap victim in Ruthless People (1987). Using her restored film stature, Midler set up her own production company and produced Beaches (1988), a pals-through-the-years saga that proved to be a four-hankie audience favorite. Once again attempting to establish herself as a tragedian, Midler starred in Stella (1989), a poorly-received remake of 1937's Stella Dallas. For the Boys (1992), offered Midler in tons of old-age makeup as a Martha Raye-style USO star (Raye responded to this "tribute" by suing the studio). The subsequent Scenes From a Mall (1991), which paired Midler with Woody Allen, and witchcraft fantasy Hocus Pocus (1993) also failed to truly showcase her talents. She rebounded somewhat in 1995 with a role in the wildly acclaimed Get Shorty, and had even greater success the following year co-starring with Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn in The First Wives Club. In 1999, Midler played herself in two films: the TV mockumentary Jackie's Back and Get Bruce!, a big-screen documentary about legendary comic writer Bruce Vilanch. In addition to her film work, Midler still performs live concerts to sold-out crowds and continues to release albums, including Bathouse Bette, a tribute to her early singing days. In 1993, she scored an enormous success in a superb TV adaptation of the Broadway musical Gypsy. And, in 2000, Midler extended her talents to television, starring as herself in the aptly-named sitcom Bette. Though she would only appear in a handful of films over the next decade, Midler remained quite active on stage and television, even earning an Emmy nomination for Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On in 2011.

Trivia: Plucky Brooklyn-born actress Marisa Tomei was one year into her college education at Boston University when she was tapped for a co-starring role on the CBS daytime drama As the World Turns. Her role on that show, as well as work on another soap, One Life to Live, paved the way for her entrance into film: In 1984, she made her film debut with a bit part in The Flamingo Kid.Three years later Tomei became known for her role as Maggie Lawton, Lisa Bonet's college roommate, on the sitcom A Different World. Her real breakthrough came in 1992, when she co-starred as Joe Pesci's hilariously foul-mouthed girlfriend in My Cousin Vinny, a performance that won her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Later that year, she turned up briefly as a snippy Mabel Normand in director Richard Attenborough's mammoth biopic Chaplin, and was soon given her first starring role in Untamed Heart (1993). A subsequent starring role -- and attempted makeover into Audrey Hepburn -- in the romantic comedy Only You (1994) proved only moderately successful. Tomei's other 1994 role as Michael Keaton's hugely pregnant wife in The Paper was well-received, although the film as a whole was not. Worse luck hit with her participation in the critically thrashed Four Rooms in 1995. Fortunately for Tomei, she was able to rebound somewhat the following year with a solid performance as a troubled single mother in Nick Cassavetes' Unhook the Stars. She turned in a similarly strong work in Welcome to Sarajevo in 1997, and in 1998 did some of her best work in years as the sexually liberated, unhinged cousin of Natasha Lyonne's Vivian Abramowitz in Tamara Jenkins' The Slums of Beverly Hills. Appearing in no less than five movies in 2000, Tomei continued her journey back to the top with a memorable performance in 2001's In the Bedroom. An emotionally wrenching tale of loss and grief, Tomei's performance as a recently separated wife who begins a tragic affair with a college student struck a common cord with critics and filmgoers alike, in addition to earning the talented actress her second Oscar nomination.Tomei's versatility assured her continuous work in a variety of different kinds of films. She played one of the women in the remake of Alfie, co-starred opposite Adam Sandler in Anger Management, and worked in the Charles Bukowski-inspired independent film Factotum. In 2007 she earned strong reviews for her work in Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, and appeared in the box office smash Wild Hogs. In 2008, Tomei enjoyed her largest critical acclaim since In the Bedroom thanks to her supporting turn opposite Mickey Rourke in The Wrestelr. Her performance earned her a number of year-end critics awards, as well as nominations from both the Golden Globes and the Academy.In 2010 she appeared in the Duplass Borthers comedy Cyrus, as the overly clingy mother to a son played by Jonah Hill, and the next year she had memorable turns in Crazy Stupid Love as a teacher who picks an unfortunate partner for a one-night-stand, and The Ides of March as a political reporter who has a hand in shaking up a presidential campaign.

Trivia: Tall, lanky, and possessing one of the most affable grins in Hollywood, Tom Everett Scott is often considered a younger version of Tom Hanks, his director in That Thing You Do!. Ironically, this resemblance almost cost him his part in the film; after seeing Scott's audition tape, Hanks didn't want to hire him because of the resemblance, but the intervention of his wife, Rita Wilson, who saw the tape and thought Scott was "cute," saved the day and landed the young actor his breakthrough role.Scott was born September 7, 1970 in Brockton, Massachusetts. The third of four children, Scott was raised in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts by a civil engineer father and an insurance saleswoman mother. While a sophomore communications major at Syracuse University, he discovered his love of theatre and changed his major to drama. After graduation, he moved to New York City, did an obligatory stint as a waiter, and formed a theatre company, '"aTheaterco," with three friends. Scott toiled away in obscurity until 1993 when he got his first role, on the TV sitcom Grace Under Fire. He auditioned for That Thing You Do! and landed the leading role of Guy, a wide-eyed drummer for the one-hit-wonders the Wonders. The role brought Scott previously unheard-of opportunities, including the starring role in his next film, 1997's An American Werewolf in Paris, which co-starred Julie Delpy. 1998 proved to be a busy year for Scott, who was seen in three very different films, the most notable being One True Thing, in which he played Meryl Streep's son. Scott also had a turn in the independent drama River Red and the college comedy Dead Man on Campus. In 1999, Scott played a significant part in the romantic comedy The Love Letter, in which he co-starred with Tom Selleck, Kate Capshaw, and Ellen DeGeneres.

Trivia: Appeared in commercials for Office Depot (at two-weeks-old), Cadillac, Disney and SeaWorld. National spokesperson for Alex's Lemonade Stand, a childhood-cancer charity, and is involved with the Starlight Children's Foundation. Voiced her first animated character in Monica, an animated short by her grade-school art teacher Rob Cabrera. On the set of 2012's Parental Guidance, costar Bette Midler introduced her to classic films like The Red Shoes and Mamma Mia!

Trivia: The character that Gedde Watanabe is most remembered for is no doubt Long Duk Dong, the spastic foreign exchange student in Sixteen Candles (1984) whose drunken fall from a tree and laughable bastardization of the English language had ninth graders of the day rolling in theater aisles. Though a few major roles followed soon after, Watanabe ultimately fell victim to the comic typecasting machine, rendering his talents muted in favor of the stereotypical "humorous foreign-guy" roles in which he would repeatedly stumble through the cursed paces of his former footprints.It seems ironic that the actor who is remembered for these roles is a native not of Japan or some far away shore, but of Ogden, UT. Though his roles have expanded in their nature somewhat in recent years, Watanabe, a fine comic actor with a certain warm sincerity, has appeared frequently in major releases, though usually a little further down the credit list. Studying acting at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, CA, Watanabe also possesses a notable talent for crooning, appearing early on as an original cast member of Sondheim's Pacific Overtures in the 1970s.After his breakout role in Candles, Watanabe continued to riff on his likeable but mechanical Japanese-guy persona with humorous roles in UHF (1989) and, perhaps most notably, Gung-Ho (1986) and the short-lived television series of the same name that followed. Bit parts in television and film followed fairly frequently, often appearing in such television series as ER and doing voice-over work for such animated series as The Simpsons and Batman: Beyond. The late '90s showed promise for Watanabe with a couple of small yet stereotype-busting roles in Guinevere and EdTV (both 1999).